UAE cricket team suffered a five-wicket defeat at the hands of USA on Monday in the first of three one day internationals.
Having won the toss at the ICC Academy Ground in Dubai Sports City, UAE decided to bat first. However, they weren’t allowed to score freely.
Chirag Suri (14) and Shaiman Anwar (13) failed to get going and were both removed by Steven Taylor who also ended the resilience of Rohan Mustafa after the opener battled on for 47 from 85 deliveries.
Rameez Shahzad struck nine boundaries in his 62-ball 53 and set UAE up to finish their innings strongly, aided by support from Ghulam Shabbir (34 from 38) but Taylor picked up his wicket as well. The home team were ultimately dismissed for 209 from 48.1 overs with Taylor ending with figures of 4-38.
USA’s chase got off to a slow start as well with Xavier Marshall’s knock of 58 from 86 balls holding up one end while a couple of wickets down the other saw them in a spot of bother at 34/2 into the 10th over.
However, Aaron Jones was the chief engineer of a couple of vital partnerships, first with Marshall and then Jaskaran Malhotra who was later run out by Suri after hitting 31 runs from 42 balls.
Jones remained until the end though to expertly shepherd the visitors over the line with a fine knock of 81 from 107 deliveries that included 10 boundaries. USA achieved their target of 210 with 15 deliveries to spare and five wickets in hand.
The hosts claimed a 1-0 victory over the Americans in the two-match T20I series just prior to the ODIs, winning the second encounter after the first was abandoned due to rain. However, they now go into the remaining two matches of the series trailing 1-0.
